Leptonic and charged kaon decay modes of the phi meson measured in heavy-ion collisions at the CERN super proton synchrotron.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2006;
96:152301. [PMID:
16712151 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.96.152301]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/03/2005] [Indexed: 05/09/2023]
Abstract
We report on results of a measurement of meson production in central Pb-Au collisions at E(lab) = 158A GeV. For the first time in the history of high energy heavy-ion collisions, phi mesons were reconstructed both in the K+K- and the dilepton decay channels in the same experiment. This measurement yields rapidity densities near midrapidity, from the two decay channels, of 2.05 +/- 0.14(stat) +/- 0.25(syst) and 2.04 +/- 0.49(stat) +/- 0.32(syst), respectively. The shape of the measured transverse momentum spectrum is also in close agreement in both decay channels. The data rule out a possible enhancement of the phi yield in the leptonic over the hadronic decay channel of a factor 1.6 or larger at the 95% C.L. This rules out the discrepancy reported in the literature between measurements of the hadronic and dimuon decay channels by two different experiments.
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